sailPDQ36
New Member
Hi, I’m Tom and I’ve been reading along here on this site for a couple of years. I finally took some time to start uploading a few of the projects I am working on.
First a little background, I got my first motorcycle when I was 6 years old and have been riding ever since. In my professional life I worked with computers, first, starting with the government at DARPA when I was 18 and then later in the private sector as CTO and part owner of a small, 70-person technology company is Washington DC.
One day, late in 2002 a larger outfit offered to buy us out and my wife and I sold our share of the company and everything else we owned (except my bikes) and left the U.S. on our 40-foot catamaran. We had planned to cruise around the Caribbean for a year or two, but that estimate was a little off. In 2016 we returned to the U.S. after 15 years afloat and decided to park the boat and re-enter a more normal adult life.
Through all this time I've had a couple of motorcycles spread out between my father’s house and my brothers place and between the two of them, they managed to keep them running and in good repair. When the WifeUnit (Amy) and I decided we were going home and buy a house, I started putting out feelers for a new project to keep me busy.
Around the time we reached the Bahamas on our way back from Central America I got a line on a guy who had enough pieces and parts to put together 2 or 3 mid 60's Hondas. The bikes were in pieces in a barn in rural West Virginia about 200 miles away from my Dad's place, but with the cunning use of a mail order case of Jack Daniels, I convinced him to drive down and load everything onto a trailer and his pickup and store it for me until we returned.
Fast forward 6 months to the summer of 2017 and my wife and I were living in my brother’s house in the guest suite with him, his wife and three boys. He is an actual adult and as such works for a living in addition to being a parent, but over the next four months he and I pieced the first bike, a 1968 Honda Dream, back together.
Eventually we got it sorted and road worthy and while it'll never be a daily driver it's a fun little bike to take out on Sunday mornings on the local backroads. It's mostly stock except for handlebars and the custom seat. I didn't think to take a bunch of pics while we were putting it back together, but here are some shots of it mostly done.
Once the Dream was more or less completed, I started working on a second bike, this one a 1966 Honda CB77 Super Hawk. It too was completely disassembled with some parts missing to make it more interesting.
It was never going to be a show bike as that’s just not my thing, so after some talking and napkin doodling, I decided to head with a retro racer \ cafe style rebuild.
I've been keeping a log of sorts since work commenced and over the next couple of days I hope to upload it here. Thanks for reading along and as always, all comments are welcome.
First a little background, I got my first motorcycle when I was 6 years old and have been riding ever since. In my professional life I worked with computers, first, starting with the government at DARPA when I was 18 and then later in the private sector as CTO and part owner of a small, 70-person technology company is Washington DC.
One day, late in 2002 a larger outfit offered to buy us out and my wife and I sold our share of the company and everything else we owned (except my bikes) and left the U.S. on our 40-foot catamaran. We had planned to cruise around the Caribbean for a year or two, but that estimate was a little off. In 2016 we returned to the U.S. after 15 years afloat and decided to park the boat and re-enter a more normal adult life.
Through all this time I've had a couple of motorcycles spread out between my father’s house and my brothers place and between the two of them, they managed to keep them running and in good repair. When the WifeUnit (Amy) and I decided we were going home and buy a house, I started putting out feelers for a new project to keep me busy.
Around the time we reached the Bahamas on our way back from Central America I got a line on a guy who had enough pieces and parts to put together 2 or 3 mid 60's Hondas. The bikes were in pieces in a barn in rural West Virginia about 200 miles away from my Dad's place, but with the cunning use of a mail order case of Jack Daniels, I convinced him to drive down and load everything onto a trailer and his pickup and store it for me until we returned.
Fast forward 6 months to the summer of 2017 and my wife and I were living in my brother’s house in the guest suite with him, his wife and three boys. He is an actual adult and as such works for a living in addition to being a parent, but over the next four months he and I pieced the first bike, a 1968 Honda Dream, back together.
Eventually we got it sorted and road worthy and while it'll never be a daily driver it's a fun little bike to take out on Sunday mornings on the local backroads. It's mostly stock except for handlebars and the custom seat. I didn't think to take a bunch of pics while we were putting it back together, but here are some shots of it mostly done.
Once the Dream was more or less completed, I started working on a second bike, this one a 1966 Honda CB77 Super Hawk. It too was completely disassembled with some parts missing to make it more interesting.
It was never going to be a show bike as that’s just not my thing, so after some talking and napkin doodling, I decided to head with a retro racer \ cafe style rebuild.
I've been keeping a log of sorts since work commenced and over the next couple of days I hope to upload it here. Thanks for reading along and as always, all comments are welcome.
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